


You're Stuck With Me Rambeau

by snow_covered_hills



Series: Higher Love [1]
Category: Captain Marvel (2019)
Genre: F/F, Family, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Maria has a lot of feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-06-02 18:07:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19446820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snow_covered_hills/pseuds/snow_covered_hills





	You're Stuck With Me Rambeau

Warm, desert wind blasts their faces, blowing their hair back and nearly deafening them at the speed they’re going. The gradually setting sun paints the sky a vibrant blend of orange, pink and blue. Maria laughs watching Carol’s hair fly behind her like a superhero’s cape. 

Carol’s hair will be a mess to detangle later, but she doesn’t seem to care, and neither does Maria. She and her best friend just graduated from flight school and nothing else matters. Well, almost nothing. They sing their hearts out with the radio blaring Lita Ford as they fly down the winding two lane road in Carol’s Mustang amidst a landscape of seemingly endless cliffs.

They pull up to the edge of the highest cliff they can find as the sun lowers on the horizon. The radio station switches from pumped up rock’n’roll to more mellow, swaying songs as they always do around this time of day. 

Carol all but leaps out of the car. She races to the edge of the cliff and lets out an echoing victory scream, stretching out her arms like a bird. Maria watches her from the passenger seat, unable to stop the laugh escaping her lips at her best friend’s shenanigans. Watching Carol act like a damn fool never fails to bring a smile to her face, even in the wake of the discovery she’d made only hours before. She thinks back to that morning, those two little pink lines on that pathetic white strip of plastic, the unsympathetic chill of the hard tile against her cheek as she sobbed on the bathroom floor, Carol’s inescapable warmth as she wrapped her arms around her and held her while she cried, promising everything would be okay and telling her to get her shit together because graduation was in just an hour. They would cry and worry and plan later, after they’d walked across the stage and gotten their wings pinned. 

Maria feels the tears welling in her eyes as she watches Carol twirl by herself on the cliff’s edge, lost in elation, pride, relief, and the crooning of the radio as the sun slowly sets behind her. It’s like a cliche scene from a movie. She has no idea how she got so lucky to have someone like Carol in her life.. She’s known for a while that what she feels for Carol isn’t strictly platonic. She’s also known for a while that she’ll never tell her how she really feels. She can’t. Can’t risk losing her best friend. Losing her wings. Carol losing hers. She tells herself it’s not worth it, though she’s not sure how true that is. She tells herself maybe someday when the world’s a little kinder she’ll tell her. She doesn’t know if either of them are willing to wait that long, but what else can she do? 

Carol bounds over to Maria’s side of the car and yanks the door open. “Come on, Rambeau, dance with me!” She yells through her laughter. Maria looks up at her and tries to hide the wetness in her eyes. Carol sees. Her demeanor immediately changes. She kneels down so that she and Maria are at eye level and rests her arm on the car. 

“Hey, what’s going on?” she asks, her voice infinitely softer than it was a moment ago. 

Maria wipes her eyes and shrugs. 

“Just thinking.” 

Carol nods, understanding Maria’s meaning. “Wanna do some thinking on the hood?” 

Maria lets out a small chuckle. They’d spent countless nights stretched out on the hood of Carol’s car (and sometimes Maria’s), staring up at the sky, naming constellations, sharing stories, trying to guess what kind of aircraft was flying overhead by listening to the roar of its engine. Whenever a serious talk needed to be had, or one of them was in need of comfort, a pint of ice cream and an hour or two laying on the hood was the usual solution. Times like these were when Maria felt closest to Carol, like Carol was being fully herself, laying herself bare, so to speak, without fear of being judged or shamed, and Maria felt she could do the same. If she had to name the place she felt safest in the world, it would be the hood of Carol’s Mustang, with her best friend beside her and a pint of rocky road between them. 

“Why not.” She climbs out of the Mustang as Carol hoists herself up onto the hood and lies back, patting the space next to her. Maria eases down beside her and lets out a sigh as Carol comfortably wraps an arm around her shoulders. The sun is blinding even through her aviators, but Maria hardly minds. They don’t have any rocky road, but Carol and the view are plenty enough for her. She relaxes into Carol’s arm and lets out a sigh. 

“Where’s your head at?” Carol echoes Maria’s often asked question with a smirk on her face. Maria would usually slap her gently and jokingly berate her for “stealing her line”, but she just scoffs and smiles, shaking her head at the inquiry. 

“Wondering what the hell I’m gonna do.” 

“You mean what the hell _we’re_ gonna do.” 

Maria can feel her eyes welling up again as she looks at Carol. Carol looks back at her with nothing but earnest support in her eyes. She wants to lean over and kiss Carol right then and there. She could. They’re completely alone right now. The only witness to their encounter would be the stars. She stops herself, and settles instead for squeezing Carol’s hand. 

“You don’t have to do this.” She says plainly. She can’t ask Carol to be her sole support system in this. She won’t have her sacrificing her own happiness and freedom just for her. 

“I know.” 

Maria searches Carol’s eyes for any sign of hesitation or doubt, and finds nothing. 

“You sure?” 

Carol nods, not backing down.

“You’re stuck with me, Rambeau. Get used to it.” 

Maria smiles, a single tear rolling down her cheek. Carol reaches over and her finger ghosts over Maria’s skin, wiping the tear away. Maria thinks she does a pretty good job at hiding the shiver Carol’s touch elicits from her. She rests her head on Carol’s shoulder, closing her eyes as the sun descends, blood orange in its final stages of setting. 

“Thank you.” She breathes out. No words would be enough for Maria to truly express to Carol how grateful she is, how much she values Carol. She trusts that Carol understands the deeper meaning behind the simple phrase. That it’s in the way she nuzzles closer into Carol’s shoulder, the way she gently squeezes her knee and leaves her hand there, the way her voice breaks slightly as the words come out. 

Carol seems to get it. She smiles and tightens her arm around Maria slightly. The sky is soon black, but it’s far from dark outside. The stars have come out to illuminate the night, and Maria can’t help the way her breath catches as she catches a glimpse of the way the light from the moon and the stars highlight Carol’s face. They playfully quiz each other on constellations until they run out of stars to count. Carol goes silent for a moment, causing Maria to look her way. She looks deep in thought, prompting Maria to ask her usual question.

“Where’s your head at, Danvers?” 

Carol’s head snaps to look at Maria, eyebrows raised inquisitively. She realizes Maria just asked her a question. 

“Oh, just thinking.” 

“About?” 

“You think it’s gonna be a boy or a girl?” 

The question catches Maria a little off guard. 

“Uhh, I dunno. Kind of hoping it’s a girl though.” 

Carol nods. “Me too.” She absentmindedly fiddles with the zipper on Maria’s sleeve pocket as she continues.

“I’m gonna teach her about all this. The constellations, the planets, the legends behind them, all of it.” 

“Oh, so we’re sure it’s a ‘her’ now?” 

“Absolutely.” 

Carol shoots her a smirk. Maria laughs.

“How much would you bet on it?” She asks mischievously, knowing Carol can’t turn down a challenge. Carol purses her lips and narrows her eyes, pretending to think long and hard about it. 

“Hmm...how about this. If I'm right, I get to pick something for you to do, like...going skydiving with me."

"Skydiving? Now why the hell would I jump out of a perfectly good plane, Carol? Isn't that kind of the opposite of our job?"

"Oh come on, it'll be fun!" 

Maria groans, shaking her head. 

"Fine, fine. What if you're wrong?"

"Then....you get to pick something for me to do, like, a chore or something." 

Maria snorts at that. “You? Doing chores? Give me a break, Danvers.” 

Carol gasps in mock incredulity. “I can do chores!” she retorts. Maria laughs at her over exaggerated tone. "Not that I'd have to, since I'm right." Carol mumbles, shooting Maria a comical side glance.

“How about _this?_ I get to do something to _you._ Like dump a bucket of ice water over your head.” 

“Okay, now that’s just plain mean.” 

They chuckle. Maria sighs. “Fine, we’ll go with your option. I hope you like doing dishes, because I have a feeling you’re wrong on this one.” 

“You’re on, Rambeau.” Carol shoots her a grin and they seal it with a fist bump. 

* * *

9 months later when Monica Rambeau is born weighing 5 pounds and 6 ounces, their bet is the furthest thing from Maria’s mind. She holds her daughter and wonders how she ever thought this was some kind of burden. When her tiny eyes open and meet her own, Maria thinks to herself the stars won’t be enough anymore, because nothing in the night sky will ever compare to the beauty and wonder in those glossy brown eyes. 

When Carol holds Monica in her arms and tries in vain to conceal the tears brewing in her eyes, Maria’s heart swells even more than before. Carol shoots Maria a smirk through her tears and quips that even though Maria technically lost the bet, she’ll surrender her victory prize to her on account of the fact that she just spent 15 hours bringing a whole other person into the world. Maria laughs and her eyes follow Carol as she speaks softly to her daughter. She’d taken to calling her “Trouble” in the last few months, and it appears the nickname has stuck.

Maria watches her best friend and her newborn daughter and imagines for a second that the context of this situation is different, that she can have this, a proper family, the three of them, without fear. She wants it more than anything. She almost pours out her feelings to Carol in that instant, but bites off the words threatening to escape her mouth as the doctor returns to do a few checks on the baby. 

She tells herself maybe it's for the best.

* * *

They’re back at home within the week, and Carol continues to be nothing but supportive. She carries their bags in and unpacks them, sets up the bassinet on the coffee table so Maria can lie down on the couch with the TV and keep an eye on Monica while the baby sleeps, and she brings Maria a cup of tea once she’s settled on the couch.

Maria thanks her for what feels like the billionth time in 9 months. She’s lost count if she’s being honest.

She thanked Carol when she was dry heaving into the toilet at 3am and felt Carol’s hand rubbing soothing circles on her back within minutes, knowing she must have woken her up with the commotion she made trying to reach the bathroom before she threw up everywhere. She had thanked Carol when she woke up from a nap to find that Carol had assembled nearly every piece of baby furniture she’d ordered, when she’d mentioned a strange craving to Carol off-handedly before work, and come to find Carol had bought everything she’d wanted, no matter how bizarre, and laid it all out on the kitchen table for Maria, when she’d woken up in bed after dozing off on the couch countless times, knowing Carol had carried her to bed and tucked her in sometime during the night.

There were a billion and one things Carol had done for her in the past few months and Maria couldn’t even begin to repay her for them.

She watches Carol delicately tuck a miniature blanket around Monica in the bassinet and place a soft kiss on her forehead as she slowly stands up, her every movement carefully calculated so as not to make too much noise.

Maria makes a decision in that moment. She’s done pretending. She’s done killing herself slowly day after day, letting the love she feels for Carol expand within her every day with no release. They’re in the comfort of their own home now. Nobody to tell them they’re wrong. Consequences be damned, Maria Rambeau is irrevocably in love with Carol Danvers, and she’s going to tell her right now. 

“Carol.” The name hangs on her lips, her voice heavier than usual. Her best friend’s head snaps up immediately, sensing the difference in her tone. She crosses the floor to Maria and tries to read her face. 

“What’s up?” 

Maria doesn’t feel awkward very often. She feels silly for feeling this way around Carol. They’ve been roommates for years. Best friends. The woman saw a baby come out of her just the other day. Boundaries just don’t exist between them anymore. Nothing about Carol should make her feel awkward, and yet Maria can’t seem to bring herself to look her friend in the eye. She mulls over what she’s going to say, then decides to wing it. Carol is growing increasingly concerned.

“Maria?” 

“I decided what I want to do.” Maria blurts out. She sees Carol’s confused expression and clarifies. “For my ‘prize’, since you so graciously forfeited yours. I’m not gonna make you do any chores or dump a bucket of ice water on your head, don’t worry.” She tries adding a touch of levity to her words to ease the tension. Carol gives her a half smile for her efforts. 

Maria steps into Carol’s space, and wonders if she imagines Carol instinctively leaning in closer. 

“There is something I’ve wanted to do for a long, long time. I don’t know if you’ll...if it’ll ruin everything, but I can’t go on not knowing.” 

Maria brushes a strand of wild blonde hair behind Carol’s ear and runs her hand along the back of her neck, trailing her fingers across her jaw until her hand is resting on Carol’s cheek. Carol’s eyes close momentarily at the sensation and Maria takes a deep breath and swallows, trying not to psych herself out. Before she can make the final movement forward and connect their lips, Carol makes it for her. Suddenly Carol’s mouth is on hers and Maria’s hands are in Carol’s hair and Carol’s arms are wrapped around her waist. It’s foreign but somehow familiar. Terrifying and exciting. Maria’s heart threatens to explode out of her chest. When they finally break apart, Carol presses their foreheads together. 

“Well, I guess that answers my question.” Maria quips, her tears betraying the lightness in her tone. 

Carol chuckles, her own eyes brimming with moisture. “Sorry, I couldn’t wait any longer.” 

Maria laughs, wiping her tears away, then Carol’s. They share a knowing look. Both of them know exactly what they’re getting themselves into here. Maria blinks, doubts filling her head, causing new tears to form. She tightens her grip on Carol.

“I don’t know how long this’ll last.” She spills, averting her gaze as she says it, realizing how it must sound. One of her painfully persistent traits is that she never minces words. Maria always says what she means, and what she’s thinking. Carol doesn’t seem to take offense, however. She runs a finger down Maria’s face, across her lips, down her neck, stopping midway and bringing it back up to tilt Maria’s chin towards her again. Maria can’t seem to find anything but love in her best friend’s eyes when she practically whispers a response. 

“How about forever?”


End file.
